Monthly Archive for January, 2011

Hot in the city

Published on 31. January 2011 in life. 0 Comments

Well, having a much deserved break which integrates very well with escaping the freezing winter back in Berlin and am in the complete polar opposite here in Sydney, Australia.

From day one the temperatures have been hovering around 40 degrees in the day and the sun’s ferocity proved a little too much for poor Ina’s and my skin yesterday. Yes, unfortunately we are now a little sunburned…..I know, I know, we should know better by this point in life but the sun here is really no comparison to anywhere else in Europe. I mean, not long ago we were in Turkey wandering around (me most of the time without a shirt on) and didn’t get sunburned then. One afternoon spent in the shade by my parent’s pool yesterday was all it took – one word - OUCH!

Other than that everything is great here…..we are organizing some more things to take back to Berlin with us because after 5 years of living without a lot of our things we decided it was time to consolidate. Since we’re flying business we can get away with 40kgs in each of our 2 bags plus another 2 pieces each of hand-luggage at up to 7kgs each. This means we can bring a lot back with us. Finally I will have my turntables again!!

It was mum’s 60th birthday bash on Saturday (which was the main motivator for coming here) and that went really well. Ina and I were really happy we could make it and the surprise on my mum’s face when we turned up was almost scary. ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-)

Hoping to get down to the city later on in the week and catch up with some friends, almost impossible to imagine moving anywhere at the moment though since the weather is stiflingly hot. Anyway, I guess we’ll soon get used to it……

IE, oh how I despise thee

Published on 19. January 2011 in life. 2 Comments

Well, bad luck to anyone viewing this website with Internet Explorer versions 6 to 9 (hell, if you are using any IE version older than that then I’m surprised you’re still alive!) because this site looks crap using any one of Microsoft’s browsers and I just can’t be bothered creating separate CSS styles and java scripts for the thing anymore. If you are using IE as your default browser, my opinion of you has instantly dropped below a recognisable level anyhow so you probably shouldn’t be here anyway :-(

Seriously, how can people still be using this piece of shit browser?? It is not compatible with so many apps and widgets and even the new builds of IE9 still don’t support CSS3 – so that means no rounded edges of pages etc. not to mention all the other goodies people are missing out on. Of course, if you are not a developer of any sort then you might not know what you’re missing out on and you might always wonder why websites look so crap and why you constantly have problems with web-applications etc……..well, the websites don’t look crap and the web-applications aren’t experiencing any issues either! Try Firefox, Chrome or Safari. All of these browsers perform way better and are compatible with way more. Tell M$ to go f@#k themselves by voting with your software. All of the browsers I’ve mentioned here are free, so why settle for something sub-par just because it came with your operating system?

Trust me, one of the biggest pains in the ass for any software/web developer is IE – or make that Microsoft in general. Since I am not a company I choose not to support it because I simply do not have the manpower and would prefer coding once instead of twice. The dwindling usage numbers of IE suggest that a lot of people know it’s crap already……hopefully you are a little wiser now as well ;-)


Make free calls in Johannesburg, South Africa

Published on 17. January 2011 in life. 0 Comments

Well, this just typifies the sad state that South Africa is in……..Johannesburg, South Africa had six hundred high-tech traffic signals, each with a cellular modem and GPS chip. Johannesburg The idea was a good one, if one malfunctioned, they’d call home immediately. Perhaps that plan wasn’t so well thought out after all though, because only two hundred are still in working order — vandals have ripped apart the rest to get at their SIM cards, causing traffic jams and accidents.

Apparently, the government-provided cards are a ticket to unlimited free phone calls for the thieves — at least until the individual devices are identified and their permissions revoked. The Johannesburg Roads Agency told the Mail & Guardian that the crime looks like an inside job, because only the SIM-equipped signals seem to have been targeted so far, despite looking visually identical. The damages are piling up, with the agency figuring it will require ZAR 8.8 million (roughly $1.26 million) to repair the four hundred signals currently out of order. Needless to say, the agency is looking at ways to better secure the traffic lights. I’m guessing that switching to CDMA is probably out of the question….embedded SIMs, perhaps?